Review of Brightburn (2019) by Vadimkoros — 28 Aug 2019

I liked the idea that horror is the genre where you can hide the secret meaning….

Apparently, the film is about adoption issues. I think the idea about children or adult children from dysfunctional families and children with birth defects encrypted in the movie. There is a big problem with adopted children from dysfunctional families or children with birth defects. I think it’s hard to discuss it openly.

Children of dysfunctional families and children with birth defects are a broad concept. Not all, but some of them may have brain damage, intellectual disability, behavioral and cognitive disorders, including difficulties with learning and memory, hyperactivity, lowered stress tolerance, autism and Asperger syndrome. Some of them have less severe forms of the condition – they just aren’t born in love.

Suchlike children during puberty begin to show antisocial or deviant behavior. But antisocial behavior is manifested in different ways. Symptoms may be caused by stealing, torturing animals etc. Children like that can insert a chopstick into the eye and at the same time feel nothing. They don’t understand that they are hurting, that the other person or animal is suffering. Such individuals have schizotypal personality, characterized by difficulties with social interaction and communication, and by restricted behavior. The symptoms of the adopted child in this film were manifested by the killing people.

Among other things the film offered options for addressing such issues, which is an even more difficult topic for public discussion of such issues in society. When the adoptive father realized that his adopted son was killing people – took him to the forest and shot him in the head.

There is another aspect of this topic – adoptive parents and particularly the adoptive mother. The adoptive mother subconsciously knew that something about her child is wrong. But the adoptive mother continued to protect him to the end. And it’s a natural reaction for any mother. Adoptive parents get into a very difficult situation. They raised him from the cradle. They invested so much love into him. They have been through so much. After all they have to get thrown him to the mob or take him to the court.

Adoptive parents may have a high social status and a well-paid job. May be they are high-ranking officials. And now they can lose their life work, they can lose everything if everyone finds out that their child is a murder. They have a reason to cover up a criminal. A similar situation is well described in the Russian TV series “The Method” (2015). Psychological thriller consists of 16 episodes and is considered as adaptation of the American TV series “Dexter” (2006-2013).